Jean-Paul "Alec" Vasil
Alec, born Jean-Paul Vasil and known as Regent in costume, is the son of Nikos Vasil and a member of the Undersiders. Personality Regent is generally far more amoral than most of the Undersiders due to his upbringing.Regent, Alec (Also Jean-Paul Vasil) – Controls the southeast end of Brockton Bay, a shantytown area which suffered badly from the attack. Sixteen, Alec is fairly amoral, stemming from a childhood spent growing up under the shadow of the emotion controlling supervillain Heartbreaker. His powers allow him to provoke uncontrolled movements or spasms of particular body parts, but his true abilities come to bear when he can gain long-term access to a victim, decoding their nervous system and gaining complete and total control over their body. - Cast (In Depth) He does however care for them; when Taylor asked the team not to get revenge on her tormentors, Regent went against this while controlling her tormentor's body with his power. Even though he didn't care, he felt he ought to, as Skitters teammate. “Why?” she breathed. “You fucked with my teammate,” he shrugged her shoulder. “Grue? I-” He didn’t let her finish. “I dunno if I care all that much, but it’s the sort of thing I’ll do because it feels like I should. Dunno. There’s also the fact that you’re dangerous, and you’ve outlived your usefulness, so… unless you can give me a convincing reason.” “Please.” “Not that convincing.” He raised one foot, then kicked the chair, hard. It rocked, but didn’t tip over. He chuckled lightly, feeling the confusion and the relief from his host. It was a thrill unlike any other. “I think I made my point.” - Excerpt from Interlude 10 The action ultimately resulted in Sophia breaking probation and getting sent to juvenile detention. Generally Alec is passive-aggressive when it comes to conflict, making wry comments behind the scenes while his friends try to figure out a problem. However, this does not mean Regent could not contribute to the Undersiders planning. He is noticeably perceptive and astute, but he is largely driven by pleasure seeking. As a consequence, he does not try to keep fit and generally does not apply himself to a task without prompting. Regent is best described as "a straight-up hedonist",Regent is a straight up hedonist. - Wildbow on Spacebattles and is bisexual, showing no preference in gender for his partners.Prey 14.1Look at it this way - at the age that many boys are raising an eyebrow at boobs, family members were saying 'hey, here are all the boobs you could want, in various shapes, sizes, and colors'. Interested in dick? Big ones, little ones, crooked ones. Dad's not that into it but a sister can hook you up. At an age when many are just figuring out enough of the world to ask 'what's heroin?' or 'what's weed?' he was given heroin and weed and everything else that was theoretically obtainable and told to only indulge if it was someone else's body. At an age when many are saying 'sex must be awesome' he was given free reign. Where other 12-13 year old boys might search the internet for weird and disturbing porn and kinky stuff just to see what's out there, he could experience it. He was given all of this in a context where people either didn't care or they didn't/couldn't judge (or, considering obligatory big brothers and their teasing, judgment didn't count for a hell of a lot compared to novelty.) - Alec's past prior to joining the Undersiders (Wildbow, Reddit.com, 2017-05-03) Relationships Given his long term exposure to his emotion manipulating father, the extent Alec can have relationships with people is an open question. Family Largely dismissive of his family, having made the choice to disassociate himself from them.Regent shrugged, “I’ve told you where I come from, how I grew up. I’ve seen similar stuff before, only it was my dad’s powers, not drugs. I’ve got a high tolerance for that shit.” I tried to convince him, “Didn’t you leave Heartbreaker because of stuff like that? Aren’t you just getting back into the same situation with Coil?” “I left my father because he was trying to control me and force me to be someone and something I wasn’t. It wasn’t even remotely interesting or fun any more. The day that happens with Coil, I’ll leave him too. For now, it’s a good gig.” These are the people I’ve been associating with? I looked to my last hope for a backup and support. Tattletale.- Excerpt from Buzz 7.12 He did not appreciate the lengths his father tried to push him to. He displayed no qualms about killing his sister or keeping her in indefinite imprisonment. Undersiders Gets along with his team-mates but is very good friends with Imp. Taylor had no Idea what their relationship actually was.Cell His closest friend on the team was definitely Aisha, who he hung out with the most. Imp considered their relationship to be an equal partnership that was destined to rule the world.Teneral e.2 Whether or not it was romantic was an open question given each of their approaches to life. He was defensive of his team's safety and berated Shadow Stalker for trying to kill Skitter.“You don’t hold back,” Shadow Stalker commented, seemingly unfazed by her circumstances. She teyted the strength of her bonds, experimentally. “Says the person who tried to slit my teammate’s throat,” Regent spoke. Shadow Stalker looked at me, the eyes behind her mask moving to my throat. “Tough costume.” She doesn’t even deny it. I can’t believe I’ve gone to high school with this lunatic. I resisted the urge to respond, shrugged instead. Too easy to get into an argument, too easy to let something slip and reveal who I was. - Excerpt from Parasite 10.1 Appearance As Alec= In his civilian guise, Alec/Jean-Paul is described as more pretty than handsome, though undeniably attractive. Lanky, with European descent and black curly hair, he wears expensive if not particularly attention-grabbing clothing, preferring to buy new clothes rather than wash something and wear it a second time. Makes a habit of wearing white. |-|As Regent= As Regent, he wears renaissance-era clothing, with leggings and loose fitting shirts.Regent – Member of the Undersiders, wears a white mask and renaissance fair clothing, with a taser-scepter. Can inflict involuntary movements and trigger reflexes in individuals he can see. - Cast (spoiler free) His mask is in the style of a Venetian mask, with an attached silver coronet. The mask has a hard exterior and is padded underneath which offers him some protection. When the Undersiders first formed Regents mask did not cover his mouth, later versions of his outfit did.Parasite 10.1 Abilities and Powers Alec has the power to cause targeted involuntary movements in the bodies of other people, ranging from twitching a leg, to manipulating internal organs, and inducing vomiting.On Regent: He could cause involuntary movements/spasms. That could be forcing him to drop something, but it could also be forcing someone to pull a trigger, make their leg jerk forward, force their gag reflex (needs some kind of pain to make something of it), etc. Easiest to make someone fall over or drop something, though. - WB on RPG.net As an Undersider, he mainly uses this power to trip his opponents during battle before finishing them off with the taser hidden inside his scepter. While useful in combat, Alec's Master 8 rating stems from prolonged use of his ability on a subject. If given enough time to use his power repeatedly, he becomes able to control all bodily functions of his victim. This includes using their parahuman abilities if applicable, and having access to their full sensory suite. He is able to feel the emotions of his subjects and any pain they endure when under his control, but it is not usually enough to affect him.He felt an explosion of rage from within Shadow Stalker’s body. Her hands even shook with it. He laughed, and her anger mixed with his amusement to create something that sounded unhinged. Probably was, when he thought about it. She had multiple personalities, in a way. He stepped from the roof, and waited until the last second to use her power. Her body exploded into a cloud of shadows. As she pulled back together, he felt a strong discomfort. Not quite pain. In seconds, she had condensed back to her normal form. The pain his hosts felt was something distant. It didn’t bother him half as much. He couldn’t be sure if it was because he instinctually prevented it or if it was something else. - Excerpt from Interlude 10 He is able to have full control over multiple people at the same time, but has a limit. Alec's control over his completely subjugated targets worsens as the distance between himself and the people he's controlling widens or when he is trying to control more people. As a side effect, his own coordination, speech, and fluidity of movement suffers the same extent that the people under his control have.Her movements were more awkward, now. Her reflexes were slower, her balance worse. Activating her power was becoming a chore, a slower, harder process. Above all, it required more of his attention. He had his Regent-self put his headphones in and turn on some music. It was an excuse to ignore the others, and to have his attention elsewhere. They weren’t at their destination yet. Shadow Stalker reached Stonemast avenue before Regent, Tattletale, Skitter, Imp and Grue got to Coil. It was funny, but with the route they were taking, if the timing was a little different, the group could have theoretically crossed paths with Shadow Stalker. At least his control was improving as the gap between them closed. - Excerpt from Interlude 10 In addition, assuming complete control over a person requires Alec to have a long period of time in close proximity with the subject, up to a few hours, so that he can "learn" how their nervous system works. While not strictly immune, Alec is highly resistant to the powers of his relatives, such as his father and his sister Cherish.Ulzgoroth:'''Definitely aren't. She uses her power on him more than anyone else, probably. Insofar as it's a targeted thing. '''Wildbow: This. Immunity to powers via. relationships isn't a guaranteed thing. Alec isn't 100% immune to Cherish, or vice versa, but they're both resistant enough to one another that it isn't really worth the effort. Remember, Cherish had a dead man's switch bomb bike-locked to her neck in case Alec got into a position to hijack her. - https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/wormverse-champions-4-the-undersiders.672521/post-16355191 Through concentrated effort they could over power Alec's resistance, but he would have the same opportunity to do so to them. - Excerpt from Interlude 11g This resistance extends to similar Masters. Power interactions As a human based Master he was resistant to, and interfered with, similar Masters. Regent control over people kept his sister Cherish from emotionally forcing his puppets to hurt themselves, while her ability to emotionally overload people effectively made them useless to him. He himself was highly resistant, if not out right immune to her, given a lifetime of exposure. His own Father had difficulty affecting his emotions after Alec triggered. He would likely also be resistant to Gallant's emotional blaster power though the concussive element would still affect him. Gallent could likely incapacitate any puppets of Regents much like Cherish did.Having emotion manipulation usually appends a degree of emotion manipulation resistance. They'd probably both be pretty darn resistant to one another. That would include Gallant fuzzing Cherish's emotion map. His blast could theoretically knock her on her ass but wouldn't do much more than that (and against those she was controlling, would probably dash whatever effects were present to the winds, or sufficiently confuse/paralyze them to stop whatever Cherish had them doing). When I say 'pretty darn resistant', I'd really say that the 80-100% resistance they had would veer one way or the other depending on how in concert they were with their passenger at the time of the encounter. - Comment by WildBow on Reddit Alec might also have some resistance to Glory Girl's aura.Maybe he's interested in her because he can't get a perfect read on her - comment on the IRC Archived on SpacebattlesDarchiasq: It's not breaking SoD that Gallant is a bud off Glory Girl, but it seems very unlikely. I think Gallant has been a cape too long for that to be possible. Another big argument for Aegis being a Cauldron cape is that his powers majorly changed his physiology, which is a telltale sign of being one. However, I don't think it's unlikely that he could be an Eden natural trigger, like Leet and String Theory. Andrew Greaves: It occurred to me, belatedly, that something like the reverse might be possible. We know that Glory Girl is a second generation Cape, and the origins of her force field power are rather obvious. But what about her empathic aura? Where did that come from? It's well known that second Triggers involve polling any other Shards within range and such, but does this also happen with first Triggers? Could Gallant have already been a cape and nearby when she Triggered? Of course, she could have also second Triggered with him nearby at some point. Incidentally, as a second gen, I'd surmise that her second Trigger would be psychologically comparable to a first gen's first Trigger. Wildbow: You're thinking along the right lines, re: the source of her aura, Andrew. - Comment by Wildbow It is unknown if shape shifting is able to confuse his memorization of a bodies pattern. History Background Born Jean-Paul Vasil, Alec was the fourth of Heartbreaker's children to develop powers.Buzz 7.1 At one point, when Alec was approximately eight years old, his father punished him for throwing a tantrum by giving Alec, as well as two of his sisters and a minder, a wave of intense terror. In the aftermath of this event, Alec refused to speak for several months. - Excerpt from Interlude 11g He ended up undergoing a trigger event at the age of ten, likely due to his father's actions. Jean-Paul worked for his father as "Hijack" for a few years, learning the family trade, until his father began to ride him. Nikos pushed Jean-Paul's limits, forced him to complete dangerous assignments, and forced him to do things that were hard on his conscience. Eventually, Nikos had Jean-Paul kill a rival foot soldier that was trying to push them out of their territory before telling him that he did it wrong. Jean-Paul realized that, no matter what he would do, his father would tell him he had done it wrong and make him keep doing it.Buzz 7.7 Story Start Once the Undersiders learned that Lung was planning to attack them, they argued strategy for the better part of the day before deciding to meet him halfway. They encountered Oni Lee with half a dozen Azn Bad Boys and fought him. Eventually, Oni Lee got spooked and ran before the Undersiders continued on. They found Lung on a rooftop whereupon one of Bitch's dogs tackled him off while the other dogs landed on top of it. Regent slid off his mount and then hurried over to the edge to watch Lung fight with Bitch's dog. He told Grue off after he introduced him "last and least", but in a tone to show he wasn't offended. Tattletale then told them that they had to scram and Regent got onto one of Bitch's dogs before they left.Gestation 1.5 He participated in the Battle at the Bank and Battle at the Gallery alongside the Undersiders. Shortly after Lung was brought into custody by the PRT, Armsmaster pushed them to look into the Undersiders' backgrounds. They identified Regent's old identity as Hijack."What do you know about how I grew up?" Regent challenged him. "I know what the Protectorate knows. Not long after Lung was brought into custody, Armsmaster began pushing for details on your group. Staff at the PRT offices were tasked with looking through old criminal records and reports of lesser known parahumans, trying to find parallels. Find if perhaps a supervillain in another area perhaps moved to Brockton Bay, changing their names, costumes and methods. They found you." - Excerpt from Tangle 6.8 Stayed by Tattletale's side when the Endbringer came to Brockton Bay given that his abilities made him utterly useless for the conflict. Post-Leviathan 'Totally' wanted Skitter back on the team because she is both good at what she did and to make sure that Grue would 'unclench'.Parasite Destroyed Shadow Stalker's career, by revealing what she had been doing to Taylor at Winslow High, and by causing her to break her probation through using his power on her. Collected Shatterbird in the battle against the Slaughterhouse Nine Did not contribute when the Undersiders' benefactor turned against them. He did participate in the later actions however. Post-Echidna Was at the meeting to talk to the Bay's new villainous arrivals about the lay of the land. Participated in the fight against the Fallen, with the extracurricular activites he was doing with Imp being a deciding factor. He also fought against the Teeth. Insuring his imprisoned sister was useful one last time. He did not send a letter to the imprisoned Undersider leader, but said to say 'hi'.Drone 23.3 Killed by Behemoth during the New Delhi fight when he distracted the Endbringer from Imp, stepping out of cover into the aberrations firing range, doing so in order to allow his friend to get to safety.The insult doesn’t/didn’t matter – he was simply the first to step out of cover. - Comment by Wildbow on Crushed 24.4 Legacy After his death, Imp removed Heartbreaker from consideration and gained custody of Alec's various siblings. Imp was educating herself in the classics and similar to be a good enough villain, while looking after his siblings. Trivia * Though rarely mentioned, Alec has noticeable talent when it comes to drawing and painting, but like many activities he doesn't apply himself. * Clones of Alec made by Echidna are tagged as "Viziers". Just as a regent can step onto the throne of monarchical european countries, so too can a vizier (usually a secretarial position) in Middle Eastern countries. Quotes “Hey Shitcrumb! Easy-“ -last words. Fanart Gallery Civilian= Jean-Paul_Holocene2.png| Illustration by Holocene from spacebattles |link=https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/17041853 Regent_worm_by_linaleez-d9wzgqphuzzah!.jpg| Illustration by LinaLeeZ on deviantart |link=http://fav.me/d9wzgqp |-|Regent= Pabelandnineregent.jpg|'' Image by Pabel and Nine. ''|link=http://pabelandnine.tumblr.com/post/137082945474 Regent-Solo_(from_Undersiders_Fanart_by_drunkfu).jpg| Illustration by Drunkfu on deviantart |link=http://fav.me/d54rdua Regent by Limited anarchy.jpg|Illustration by Kingduame on tumblr|link=http://kingdaume.tumblr.com/post/158617098546 Dangerous duo by aerryi-d7ti01b.png|Illustration by Aerryi Regent1.png|Illustration by Uberpigeon|link=https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/7t1ces/i_drew_the_undersiders/ Va4yOBhrGWFHqmBPm-BIgW4B0fd6fsmGIyPpRSAzAck.png|Illustration by ArtLounge|link=https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/8gt2c8/fanart_alec/ Aisha and Alec by Superwhiteys.png|Illustration by Superwhiteys Site Navigation Category:Males Category:Master Category:The Undersiders Category:Villains Category:Heartbroken Category:Point of View Character Category:Characters Category:Vasil Family Category:LGBT Characters Category:Deceased Category:Worm Characters